Fredericks was born on January 31, 1908, in Rock Island, Illinois. He studied at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute, then graduated in 1930 from the Cleveland School of Art. He later traveled extensively in Europe, studying in several countries. Among his instructors was the well-known Swedish sculptor Carl Milles (1875â€"1955), who probably influenced Frederickâ€™s stylized realism. Milles created the central sculpture, The Astronomer, for the New York Worldâ€™s Fair of 1939-40 at Flushing Meadows; Fredericks also contributed temporary sculptures to that earlier fair.

Fredericks joined the faculty of the Cleveland School of Art in 1931, and then taught from 1932 to 1942 at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Fredericks left teaching to enter the armed forces during World War II, and served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Pacific and Far East. After the war, Fredericks was frequently in demand for public and private commissions. Some of his major works include the Thinker at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden, and Man and the Expanding Universe, a fountain in front of the State Department in Washington, DC. He created hundreds of sculptures, many monumental in size, including monuments for Henry Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan and President John F. Kennedy at Mount Clemens, Michigan.

The subjects of the seven stone reliefs are Naturalist, Adventurers, Scientists, Musicians, Hiawatha, Aesop’s Fables and a Student Motif. The 30 smaller reliefs of aluminum represent various subjects including God, Nature and Man. Many of the reliefs are purely decorative; and two groups of baboons symbolizing Music and Science are just for fun. Fredericks is also the sculptor of the two larger bronze reliefs formerly on the east facade of LSA and now at Bentley Historical Library, Dream of th...

The subjects of the seven stone reliefs are Naturalist, Adventurers, Scientists, Musicians, Hiawatha, Aesop’s Fables and a Student Motif. The 30 smaller reliefs of aluminum represent various subjects including God, Nature and Man. Many of the reliefs are purely decorative; and two groups of baboons symbolizing Music and Science are just for fun. Fredericks is also the sculptor of the two larger bronze reliefs formerly on the east facade of LSA and now at Bentley Historical Library, Dream of the Young Girl and Dream of the Young Man. Fredericks, who worked as an assistant to Carl Milles at Cranbrook and taught there ten years, is also the sculptor of the American Eagle at Michigan Stadium, and the bas reliefs on the Rackham Educational Memorial in Detroit, as well as bronze busts of several prominent faculty members.